By Chad Dare, Sports Editor
Danville Commercial-News
 
DANVILLE - There was just something missing for the Danville Dashers on Wednesday.

With the Federal Hockey League's Commissioner's Cup finals tied at one game apiece, Danville started slowly and the Watertown Wolves took advantage of the opportunity, winning 5-2 in Game 3 on Wednesday night before a crowd of 1,263 at the David S. Palmer Arena.

Watertown takes a 2-1 lead in the series and the Wolves can claim the title with a win tonight over the Dashers.

That slow start became an extra burden on the Dashers midway through the first period when Watertown's Mike Zannella scored the game's first goal off assists from Stanislav Vlasov and Chad Bennett, the latter setting the play up with his takeaway at the blue line. It was Zannella's second goal of the championship series.

Danville found itself in a 2-0 hole just three minutes later as Dylan O'Neil tipped one past Dashers goalie Matt Anthony off a pass from Lucas LaBelle.

A golden opportunity presented itself to Danville with 3 minutes, 41 seconds left in the first period as Watertown's Brent Petry was called for hooking just 62 seconds after the Wolves' Justin Alonzo was sent the penalty box for slashing.

The Dashers had a 5-on-3 power play for 58 seconds, but Josselin St. Pierre, the goaltender for Watertown, was up to the challenge, turning away four shots as the Wolves maintained their 2-0 lead.

Watertown took advantage of another Danville turnover just a few minutes into the second period as Mike Donnellan buried his slap shot past Anthony, giving the Wolves a 3-0 lead.

The Dashers finally got onto the board with 11:29 left in the second period as Soskin redirected a slap shot from Justin Levac past St. Pierre, cutting Watertown's lead to 3-1.

Danville found itself trailing 3-1 heading in the third period and the Wolves had outshot the Dashers 25-16.

On multiple occasions in the final 20 minutes, St. Pierre was tested by Danville's attack.

Dashers' Daniel Turgeon had a one-on-one breakaway that St. Pierre made a great save with the glove but with just over nine minutes left in the contest, St. Pierre collided with a defenseman, appearing to take a skate to the side of his helmet.

The former goalie of the Dashers had to leave the game with Nick Niedert coming into the contest.

Watertown gave itself a 4-1 lead just a minute later when Ben Schoeneberger scored, but Danville responded with a power-play goal by A.J. Tesoriero with 3 minutes, 41 seconds left. But that was as close as the Dashers would get as LaBelle got an empty-net goal in the final minute to seal the deal.

The puck will drop at 7:05 p.m. tonight at the David S. Palmer Arena for the fourth game of the Federal Hockey League's Commissioner's Cup Finals.